Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising Review

Kicking bandit ass since 2009.

Is anyone else upset by how many Naruto games are released, and how few of them are actually worth our time and money? Under normal circumstances, I totally understand why a publisher would want to launch numerous games in a popular franchise, but Namco Bandai's handling of the Naruto license is starting to get mind-boggling.

When I reviewed Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden earlier this year, I was disappointed in the experience. I had to jump from CyberConnect2's fantastic PS3 Naruto project (Ultimate Ninja Storm) to this PS2 game that ran on CyberConnect2's older combat engine. This snafu was just a result of bad timing, as Ultimate Ninja 4 launched in Japan before Ultimate Ninja Storm, but that wasn't the case in the US. So even though Ultimate Ninja 4 was a decent enough game, it was trying to follow a far superior Naruto title.

And now, to make matters worse, Namco Bandai is publishing Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising on the PSP -- which follows the exact same story arc as Ultimate Ninja 4. The battle system is all over the place and the game just isn't fun to play. Again, I recognize how important the Naruto franchise is, but even hardcore Naruto fans must be getting frustrated, right?

It's not as exciting as it looks.

Akatsuki Rising is essentially a free-roaming brawler that follows the Shippuden story arc from the Naruto manga/anime. The arc picks up several years later in the Naruto timeline after everyone's favorite group of ninja friends have grown up a bit. Players select a character and dash through fairly linear environments in an effort to rescue Sand Village Kazekage Gaara from the dangerous Akatsuki. Players hit the Square button to attack, X button to jump, Circle button to dodge and Triangle button to use Ninja Tool weapons. L trigger handles target locks and the R trigger brings up your Jutsu menu.

The biggest slice of the Akatsuki pie comes in the form of Scenario Mode, which is broken into several chapters. Here, you'll battle bandits, boars, bees and all sorts of other things that start with "b" in an effort to reach the end of a set of linear environments. Players can also try their hand at Survival Mode (which is essentially an arena battle), Battle Mode (one-on-one fighting with another main character) and Mission Mode. You unlock ranked missions in Mission Mode as you play and completing them rewards you with money and other goodies. Several of these modes can also be tackled with a friend via Ad Hoc play.

While this might sound like plenty of fun for the whole family, it's really not. The Scenario Mode, along with all the other main modes, are really just iterations of the same bland, clunky battle system. This is my main issue with Akatsuki Rising, because the combat engine is a very unusual mix of "being too easy" and "being too hard." What makes the system "easy" is that all combos can be executed by mashing away at the Square button. Or, just tap the R trigger to execute a powerful Jutsu technique. This simplicity is extended into the game's defense maneuvers, as you can hit any button at the time an opponent's strike hits your character in order to perform a counter. This includes the Square button. So while you're mashing away at Square, pwning bandits left and right, you're also automatically countering and teleporting about, which is totally lame.

On the other side of the coin, the battle system can be frustrating (or "too hard") when you consider the game's camera control and target locks, which are less than ideal. It's difficult to manage fighting a group, because there's no easy way to jump from one opponent to the other and everything feels extremely stiff. Sure, you can take your thumb off the analog nub and hit the D-pad to change your lock-on, but your combos rarely work at dispatching multiple opponents at once and overall it just feels clunky.

These problems are exacerbated when you're pounding away at Square on one dude, another dude attacks you and your most recent Square input causes you to counter that attack. This simultaneously interrupts your combo against your original opponent and it also forces you to lock-on to your newly encountered adversary... even if they're halfway across the map and happened to catch you with a stray projectile.

Oh, Sakura. Even your adorable pink hair can't save this game.

As you can imagine, this can lead to very sudden and disorienting camera shifts, as you accidentally lock-on to a distant opponent and lose track of an enemy nearby... only to be smacked in the back of the head without warning. I found myself in these situations frequently, and they certainly didn't help make the already bland battle system any better.

Akatsuki Rising's only redeeming quality is the amount of customization you can do to your character. There are tons of items, weapons and scrolls to find and purchase, giving you the ability to power-up your character of choice. I thought this was a nice system for a brawler, but the aforementioned problems far outweigh the positive elements.

The Verdict

Had Akatsuki Rising presented players with a more enjoyable, more intuitive combat engine, I might have been able to forgive the fact that we're seeing the same story arc we've seen before. But even with an interesting item system and solid Ad Hoc multiplayer, the unintuitive lock-on system, mixed with an overly simple counter system, make Akatsuki Rising a mediocre game at best.